595 


Memorial   Day.    Oration 

By 
Charles    A.    Surrmer 


'alifornia] 

Jional 

ility 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


D 


ay. 


ORATION 


—BY— 


CHARLKS      A.     SUMNER, 

Of  Geo.  H.  Thomas  Post,  No.  2,  G.  A.  R. 
Dept.  of  California. 


Delivered  at  the  Grand  Opera  House,  San  Francisco, 
WEDNESDAY  EVENING,  M/tY  30,  1888. 


OBJECTS  OF  THE  GRAND  ARMY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

I .  To  preserve  and  strengthen  those  kind  and  fraternal  feelings  which  bind 
together  the  soldiers,  sailors  and  marines  who  united  to  suppress  the  late  rebellion, 
and  to  perpetuate  the  memory  and  history  of  the  dead. 

2.  To  assist  such  former  comrades  in  arms  as  need  help  and  protection,  and 
to  extend  needful  aid  to  the  widows  and  orphans  of  those  who  have  fallen. 

3.  To  maintain  true  allegiance  to  the  United  States  of  America,  based  upon 
a  paramount  respect  for,  and  fidelity  to  the  National  Constitution  and  laws;  to  dis- 
countenance whatever  tends  to  weaken  loyalty,  incites  to  insurrection,  treason  or 
rebellion,  or  in  any  manner  impairs  the  efficiency  and  permanency  of  our  free  in- 
stitutions ;    and  to  encourage  the   spread   of  universal  liberty,   equal  rights  and 
justice  to  all  men. 


SAN    FRANCISCO  : 

JAMES  H.  BARRY,  PRINTER,  429  MONTGOMERY  STREET. 
1888. 


fDemoinal    Day. 


ORATION 


—BY— 


CHARLKS     A.     SUMNKR, 

Of  Geo.  H.  Thomas  Post,  No.  2,  G.  A.  R. 
Dept.  of  California. 


Delivered  at  the  Grand  Opera  House,  San  Francisco, 

• 

WEDNESDAY  EVEJMING,  M/rY  30,  1888. 


OBJECTS  OF  THE  GRAND  ARMY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

1.  To  preserve  and  strengthen  those  kind  and  fraternal  feelings  which  bind 
together  the  soldiers,  sailors  and  marines  who  united  to  suppress  the  late  rebellion, 
and  to  perpetuate  the  memory  and  history  of  the  dead. 

2.  To  assist  such  former  comrades  in  arms  as  need  help  and  protection,  and 
to  extend  needful  ,iid  to  the  widows  and  orphans  of  those  who  have  fallen. 

3.  To  maintain  true  allegiance  to  the  United  States  of  America,  based  upon 
a  paramount  respect  for,  and  fidelity  to  the  National  Constitution  and  laws;  to  dis- 
countenance whatever  tends  to  weaken  loyalty,  incites  to  insurrection,  treason  or 
rebellion,  or  in  any  manner  impairs  the  efficiency  and  permanency  of  our  free  in- 
stitutions ;    and   to  encourage  the   spread   of  universal  liberty,   equal  rights  and 
justice  to  all  men. 


SAN    FRANCISCO  : 

JAMES  H.  BARRY,  PRINTER,  429  MONTGOMERY  STREET. 
1888, 


ORATION. 


On  being  introduced  by  Hon.  Henry  C.  Dibble,  Mr. 
Sumner  said: 

Mr.  President,  Comrades  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:     It  is  right  that   one 
day  "of  all  the  weary  year"  should  be  set  apart  and  dedi- 
cated to  the  commemoration  of  the  deeds  of  the  civil  war; 
and  especially  to  the  grateful  consideration  of  the  record 
of  those  who  fought  and  fell  in  that  struggle,  and  thus 
contributed    most     indubitably   and    effectually   to    the 
achievement  of  the  greatest  of  triumphs    for  the  institu- 
tions of  civil  liberty.     It  should  be   a  separate  time;  it 
cannot  properly  be  joined  with  other  objects.     Our  great 
national  anniversary  still  largely  if  not  wholly  retains  its 
ancient  significance,  and  all  its  former  precedence; — only 
enhanced,  indeed,  by  the  glory  of  the  valor  and  the  Union 
va  victories  of  the  later  conflict.     The  birthday  of  a  Presi- 
Jg  dent  or  General,  however  renowned  and  worthy  of  special 
~  remembrance  he  might  be,  could  not  have  been  fitly  se- 
c  lected  for  such   a  purpose,  as  undue  personal  emphasis 
|  and  invidious  distinctions  would  then  have  been  among 
is  the  inevitable  and  discordant  results.    Nor  is  there  a  sin- 
^  gle  notable  event  of  the  war — of  battle  or  decree — not 
even  the   issuance  of  the  emancipation  proclamation  it- 
self— that  so   stamps  and  dignifies  the  hours,  with  such 
direct  and  related  influences,  as  to  imperatively  or  justi- 
fyingly  control  this  appointment.     It  must  be  a  day  by 
itself.     And  so  it  is.     The  pre-eminent  propriety  of  such 
a  designation,  isolated  and  peculiar,  and  the  excellence  of 
the  judgment  that  named  the  day  on  which  we  have  as- 
sembled, and  conducted  and  nearly  concluded  our  exer- 
cises, have  constituted  the  frequent  theme  of  felicitous  and 
sufficient  speech. 

When  the  roses  bloom  all  over  the  land,  the  long  pro- 
cession is  formed,  in  city  or  town,  with  the  regular  or 
citizen  soldiery  and  uniformed  civic  associations  as  escorts 

370577 


or  honoring  attendants;  at  the  head  or  in  the  midst  of 
which  march  the  Union  army  veterans;  and  so,  in  sim- 
ple but  martial  line,  they  go  to  the  graves  of  dead  com- 
rades, and  cover  their  dust  with  flowers. 

The  ceremony  is  becoming.  It  is  so  as  a  manifesta- 
tion of  affection  for  the  heroes  gone, — recollection  of  their 
labors  and  dangers  and  sufferings;  and  as  the  strongest 
and  tenderest  of  reminders  and  stimulants  respecting  our 
own  continued  and  bounden  duty  as  surviving  patriots. 
More  than  this  it  is: — as  testimony  before  all  observing 
men  and  women  in  this  country,  in  mournful  but  une- 
quivocal celebration  of  a  consummation  by  campaigns  and 
battles,  over  which  every  true  citizen  should  rejoice — in 
common  with  every  intelligent  lover  of  liberty  through- 
out the  inhabitable  globe.  More  than  these  it  is: — in  tes- 
timony, instructive,  explicit,  inspiring  and  enduring,  to 
the1  generations  that  are  with  us  but  coming  after  us,  and 
to  all  the  generations  that  are  to  come,  of  the  justice  of 
that  cause  for  which  we  were  originally  enrolled  in  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic. 

And  how  tit  the  date,  with  a  retrospect  of  precisely  27 
years  ago.  We  are  at  the  close  of  the  season  in  which  the 
war  began.  How  eventful  was  the  spring  of  1861!  How 
great  th  echangethat  then  came  over  the  life  and  thought 
of  the  people — during  that  brief  period  of  time! 

Not  with  standing  the  rapidly  deepening  blackness  of 
the  clouds  of  rebellion  that  gathered  and  o'ercast  our 
country  from  the  Presidential  election  of  1860  to  the  lat- 
ter part  of  March,  1861,  most  reluctant  was  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  the  citizens  of  the  northern  States,  and  of  some 
of  the  border  commonwealths,  to  admit  that  satisfactory 
compromise  was  impossible,  and  that  we  must  accept  the 
dire  arbitrament  of  arms.  To  the  very  last,  the  hope  was 
lively  and  intense  in  the  breasts  of  loyal  men,  that  actual 
war  might  and  would  be  averted.  To  the  very  verge  of 
craven  submission  had  public  pledges  and  private  per- 
suasion gone,  with  a  view  to  mollify  and  placate  the  lead- 
ers of  secession,  before  the  first  gun  was  fired  on  Fort 
Sumter. 

With  remarkable  readiness  and  celerity  was  the  sum- 
mons of  the  President  for  the  respective  quota  of  militia, 


under  the  call  for  75,000  troops,  answered  by  the  Govern- 
ors and  people  of  most  of  the  loyal  States.  But  in  the  de- 
parture to  the  national  capital  or  "  the  front,"  of  regi- 
ments and  companies  so  required  and  measurably 
expectant  of  requisition,  there  was  by  no  means  a  popular 
abandonment  of  trust  and  confidence  in  the  ultimate, 
speedy,  peaceful  settlement  of  the  disagreements  and  diffi- 
culties which  the  chief  executive  had  outlined  and  de- 
plored,— with  only  the  sad  record  of  the  Charleston  harbor 
fortress  once  attacked  by  and  surrendered  to  a  rebellious 
foe,  and  a  few  trifling  skirmishes  on  the  border,  to  stain 
the  pages  of  our  national  history. 

On  the  4th  of  May,  1861,  however,  the  proclamation 
of  the  President  for  volunteers  was  issued; — the  progress 
and  cohesion  of  the  movement  for  secession  having  then 
proceeded  to  such  lengths  as  to  exclude  any  doubt  or  ex- 
pectation against  the  fact  that  war  had  commenced,  and 
that  a  desperate  and  prolonged  struggle  between  different 
sections  of  the  Union,  already  defined  by  so-called  ordi- 
nances of  repeal  and  separation,  was  unavoidable. 

Already  in  every  northern  city  of  considerable  size 
and  transportation  facilities,  the  parks  and  adjacent  com- 
mons had  been  appropriated  for  the  barracks  of  enlisted 
men, — temporarily  housed  for  the  discipline  of  a  week, 
or  the  lodging  of  a  night,  while  on  their  ordered  way  to 
the  scene  of  threatened  hostilities.  Then  it  was  that  the 
soft  music  of  the  piano  and  viol  was  hushed  or  drowned 
in  nearly  every  town  and  village  of  the  northern  States; 
while  the  air  reverberated  with  the  stirring  roll  of  the 
drum  and  the  shrill  shriek  of  the  fife  and  the  command- 
ing blare  of  the  bugle.  Then  it  was  that  father  and  mo- 
ther, and  brother  and  sister,  and  wife  and  maiden-be- 
trothed, bade  good-bye  to  the  youthful  recruit,  as  he  joined 
the  awkward  squad  on  the  village  green  or  marched  down 
the  main  street  of  his  native  hamlet  for  the  last  time; — 
with  a  consciousness  on  their  part,  in  bitter  anguish,  of 
the  almost  absolute  certainty  of  a  hazard  of  war  decreed 
for  him  on  some  bloody  field  of  combat.  A  bastard  wit 
and  humor  of  this  age  and  country  have  sought  to  make 
mockery  of,  and  bring  perpetual  derision  upon  these  tear- 
ful and  prayerful  partings,  or  their  recitals;  but  we  knew 


and  should  here  and  now  with  profoundest  sympathy 
recall  and  commemorate  such  heart-breaking  sacrifices 
and  consecrations, — then  made  by  the  closest  of  relatives 
and  the  dearest  of  friends, — the  irrepressible,  attending 
signs  and  demonstrations  of  sorrow,  but  serving  to  show  the 
strength  and  earnestness  of  the  wills  aroused,  and  increas- 
ing the  actual  value,  we  know  not  how  many  fold,  of  the 
champions  thus  bequeathed  and  dispatched  for  the  pre- 
servation of  our  national  integrity  and  the  unshorn  supre- 
macy of  the  flag  of  our  Union., 

And  as  for  the  rawr  volunteer: — how  fared  it  with  him 
in  mind  and  resolution,  on  the  day  of  enlistment,  or  at 
the  hour  of  farewell  to  friends  and  home  ? 

He  who  seeks  to  cast  suspicion  upon  the  sincerity  or 
bravery  of  the  rebellious  foe,  would  but  aid  in  belittling 
the  severity  of  the  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  loyal  forces, 
and  detract  from  the  honor  and  the  glory  of  the  final  tri- 
umph. Slight,  indeed,  if  any,  was  the  real  doubt  or  decep- 
tion on  this  score,  in  the  direction  deprecated,  in  the 
minds  of  northern  men.  It  did  not  require  the  actual 
shock  of  battle  to  teach  our  boys  the  tremendous  delusion 
that  would  repose  on  such  a  grave  misapprehension.  At 
the  very  least,  full  faith  and  credit  was  given  by  them  to 
every  rational  claim  for  intrepidity  and  even  reckless  dar- 
ing on  the  part  of  the  enemy  they  were  summoned  to 
confront. 

Nor  did  some  plain  and  powerful  reasons  for  an 
average  disparity  in  physical  and  educated  adaptability 
for  the  service,  at  the  very  outset,  escape  the  thoughtful 
and  appreciative  consideration  of  the  Union  volunteers, 
and  especially  of  most  of  those  who  hailed  from  the  New 
England  commonwealths.  The  far  greater  proportion  of 
the  citizens  of  the  sunny  South  who  had  been  accustomed 
to  the  use  of  deadly  weapons,  thoroughly  trained  in  horse- 
manship, and  tutored  and  skillful  as  marksmen  in  sport 
or  on  former  fields  of  conflict,  was  a  fact  well  understood 
among  our  Union  soldiers,  and  the  subject  of  reference  in 
many  of  their  camp-fire  conversations,  before  the  day  of 
their  particpation  in  skirmish  arrived  or  the  thunder  of 
pitched  battle  sounded  in  their  ears.  Reared  in  a  more 
genial  clime,  and  on  that  and  other  kindred  accounts 


having  had   more  leisure  and  better  opportunity  for  the 
species  of  exercise  calculated  to  render  them  nearly  fitted 
for  a  military  service,  and  with  natural  and  cultivated 
tastes  and  dispositions  all  in  that  line  of  activity,  it  was 
well  known,  and  passed  into  daily  dialogue,  that  the  first 
to  answer  the  appeal  of   the  Confederate  authorities  for 
troops,  would  in  all  probability  be,  in  the  direction  indi- 
cated— and  without  the  slightest  offensive  disparagement 
of  our  own  people  of  the  North— the  abler  occupants  of 
fort  and  field.     And  then  there  was  the  greater  readiness 
for  such  a  strike,  born  and  nurtured  in  a  condition  of  so- 
ciety that  Eulogized  the  duelist,  and  justified  and  com- 
mended and  even  commanded  the   settlement  of  many 
personal  disagreements  by  the  single  combat,  with  sword 
or  gun.     And  beyond  these,  and  perhaps  at  first  most  for- 
midable of  affecting  differences  asserted,   or  sometimes 
conceded  (to  select  one  other  from  numerous  points  of  emo- 
tional equipment  and  incentive,  that  flash  in  upon  us  in 
such  a  contemplation) — there   was   the   assumption,    so 
reasonable  on  the  first  suggestion,  so  artfully  and  studi- 
ously impressed — the  assumption  on  the  part  of  the  rebel 
soldier,  or  in  his  behalf,  that  he  was  fighting,  or  about  to 
fight,  for  the  preservation  of  the  sanctity  of  his  own  fire- 
side and   his    family  honor: — an   idea  which  was  taken 
for  a  text  in  the  composition  of  ten  thousand  calls  to  arms 
in  the  South,  and  blazoned  on  hundreds  of  banners  that 
were  tautened  in  every  city  and  town  within  the  bounds 
of  the  confederacy; — that  formed  the  basis  and  substance 
of  many    mottoes  and  rallying  cries,  quoted — often  with 
half-concealed,  sometimes  with  undisguised,  approval — by 
the  traitorous  portion   of  the  northern  press,  and  thus 
flaunted  in  the  very  faces  of  the  men  meditating   on  their 
possible   obligation   to  enlist,  or  already  beginning  their 
term  of  service  in  the  ranks.     We  are  not  alluding  to  any 
admitted  distinction  or  disparity  in  native  courage.     We 
are  merely  touching  that  which  was  fully  and  creditably 
recognized  and  realized  in  the  first    months  of  the  rebel- 
lion— the  time  of  preliminary  preparation — by  the  great 
mass  of  Union  volunteers, — some  of  whom  are  now  sleep- 
ing in  yonder  cemeteries  with  your  lilies  above  their  heads. 
There  was  no  reason  why  the  combatants  on  the  Union 


side  should  not  have  expert--'!  to  meet  at  first,  armies 
at  least,  equal  to  their  own  in  nuiiicricjil  .strength.  There 
was  reason  to  believe  that  the  boasted  capability  of  oae 
to  two  or  more,  so  often  reported  to  have  been  made  by 
Confederate  Captains,  had  a  <had«.>w  of  foundation  or  justifi- 
cation in  the  schooling  or  recreations  of  boyhood  and  early 
manhood;  and  to  the  muscle  and  nerve  that  were  his  as  a 
conscious  inheritance,  the  Yankee  lad  in  the  loyal  hosts 
felt  that  he  would  need,  and  must  add,  the  vigor  and  en- 
ergy that  should  come  from  an  enlightened  assurance  of 
a  better  cause,  and  the  strength  of  patriotic  resolution  in- 
stilled by  parental  teachings  and  ancestral  example. 

But  while  there  were  warranted  and  while  there  were 
excessive  misgivings  on  the  one  hand — in  no  fashion  or 
degree  due  to  any  inherent  lack  of  manly  sentiment  or 
will — there  wrere  unsustained  anticipations,  in  the  same 
line,  on  the  other.* 

Nothing  is  more  gratifying  for  emphasis  in  the  records, 
few  matters  of  interest  and  proper  for  comment  at  such  an 
hour,  are  more  deserving  of  mention,  than  the  story  or 
illustrations  of  the  rapid  advance  on  the  part  of  the  loyal 
volunteer  in  his  proficiency  in  the  art  of  war.  But 
stranger  yet — and  strange  that  it  has  not  been  made  the 
subject  of  published  reference  and  remark  ere  now — was 
the  almost  metamorphosis,  where  there  was  stamina  for 
such  a  change,  from  the  actual  or  seemingly  weak  to  the 
indisputably  rugged  man.  If  age,  or  chronic  or  organic 
ailment,  had  seriously  impaired  the  natural  animal  powers 
of  the  recruit,  there  was,  of  cour>e,  a  quick  relief  from 
active  duty  at  the  front,  a  discharge  for  disability,  or  a 
detail  to  clerical  or  culinary  service  in  the  rear;  but  the 
vitality  adequate  for  building  up  a  strong  constitution 
being  latent,  the  campaign  experience  in  the  Union 
ranks,  in  this  "unjust  and  unnatural  rebellion," — as 
General  Winfield  Scott  described  it,  in  hi-  brief  letter  of 
resignation, — often  had  its  immedjate  individual  bene- 
ficence, its  personal,  physical  compensation,  at  the  very 
beginning  of  life  in  tent  and  trench.  The  bloom  of  sturdy 

*"You  have  proved  that  Union  men,  fighting  for  the  preservation  of  our  Gov- 
ernment, are  more  than  a  match  for  our  misguided  and  erring  brothers  " Gen 

George  B.  McClellan. 


9 

health  not  infrequently  came  speedily  into  the  face  of  the 
new  recruit,  who,  late  a  pale  and  cadaverous  student  be- 
neath the  midnight  lamp  in  his  college  room,  would  have 
afforded  infinite  amusement  to  the  lithe  and  sinewy  gen- 
tleman of  the  Confederate  forces,  could  he  but  have  seen 
his  future  antagonist  when  signing  the  company  roll.  So 
looked,  and  so  went  forth  William  F.  Bartlett,  from  the 
halls  of  Harvard  University;  a  stripling  that  barely 
passed  the  examination  of  the  recruiting  surgeon, — so 
frail  of  physique  did  he  seem  to  that  medical  adviser.  Yet 
he  lived  and  toiled  in  the  service,  to  thrive  in  body  and 
in  soul.  He  lived  to  participate  fiercely  in  numerous  skir- 
mishes and  battles,  from  Ball's  Bluff  to  Port  Hudson;  and 
again  in  Virginia  before  Petersburg,  where  he  was  se- 
lected to  lead  an  assaulting  brigade  on  the  occasion  of 
the  celebrated  mine  explosion.  He  lived  to  receive  and 
at  least  to  partially  recover  from  three  dreadful  wounds; 
hastening  from  hospitals,  half  healed  of  his  horrid  blows, 
to  assume  new  regimental  commands  coming  from  his  na- 
tive Massachusetts;  eager  to  take  their  fighting  orders 
under  the  gleam  of  his  martial  blade.  With  crippled 
limbs  and  lacerated  breast,  which  periodically  bled 
afresh,  he  survived  the  war  for  more  than  ten  years; — an 
especial  marvel  of  vitativeness  to  those  who  saw  him 
when  he  first  shouldered  his  musket; — dying  and  borne 
to  his  tomb  amid  the  aching  heart-throbs  of  all  who  knew 
him,  and  who  loved  him  for  his  many  virtues  and  his 
valor. 

So  went  forth  and  physically  recuperated,  and  fought 
and  bled  and  conquered,  and  gained  deserved  promotion, 
during  countless  risks  and  Hurts  by  shot  and  sword,  un- 
numbered others,  of  like  apparent  delicacy  of  frame  and 
amiability  of  mind.  The  brawny  sons  of  hardiest  toil 
were  at  first  most  desired,  best  approved,  and  as  a  rule  at 
first  most  efficient  at  the  front;  but  the  spindle-legged 
"counter-jumpers,"  and  sedeutaries  of  every  honorable  call- 
ing that  lightly  taxed  the  muscular  part  of  man,  soon  came 
to  fairly  rival  the  accustomed  laborer  of  the  farm  and  the 
workshop,  with  their  agile  and  thorough  and  persistent 
performances  in  the  most  exacting  line  of  soldierly  duty. 
And  the  stalwart  comrades  of  the  69th  N.  Y.,  from  its 


10 

high  and  acknowledged  plane  of  matchless  physical  en- 
durance and  unsurpassed  bravery,  with  noble  candor  were 
soon  among  the  first  and  foremost  t,o  confess  and  cheer 
the  exhibition  of  whip-cord  toughness  and  tenacity,  given 
in  the  hottest  of  contests,  by  the  dandy  5th. 

It  has  been  the  long-time  custom  of  many  Union 
men,  soldiers  and  civilians  alike,  to  speak  with  a  sorrow 
largely  mixed  with  severest  censure — and  only  so  to  speak 
— respecting  officers  and  troops  engaged,  or  ordered  to 
take  part,  in  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  Only  within  a 
closely  recent  period  has  the  familiarly  summarized  ver- 
dict of  competent  and  disinterested  foreign  critics — "  A 
well  planned  and  stoutly  fought  battle  on  the  part  of  the 
Union  forces  " — been  listened  to  with  any  patience  or 
tolerance  by  the  majority  of  our  people  who  pretend  to 
have  any  intimate  and  analysing  acquaintance  with  the 
reports  of  the  action,  or  any  intelligent  judgment  upon  the 
entire  conduct  of  the  fight.  But  it  has  been  and  is 
now  to  be  noted,  that  from  the  dates  of  that  series  of 
skirmishes  which  bears  the  one  name  mentioned,  there 
was  no  repetition  of  that  vaunt  of  man  to  m/tn  superior- 
ity coming  from  any  reputable  military  rebel  source. 
That  fact  itself  should  be  enough  to  vindicate  the  par- 
ticipants from  every  reproachful  taunt  and  every  base 
insinuation. 

From  the  official  reports  of  the  respective  command- 
ers, each  speaking  for  its  own  side,  there  was  a  combined 
force  of  18,000  Union  soldiers  thrown  against  27,000 
rebel  troops;  both  sides  equally  well  equipped  in  arms, 
but  the  latter  fighting  always,  of  course,  with  the  advan- 
tage of  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  country  occupied 
and  contended  over,  and  with  the  added  and  larger  ad- 
vantage of  breastworks  and  tree-shields  for  musketry 
defence,  and  masked  embrasures  for  ambuscade  artillery 
practice.  The  difference  in  numbers  of  killed  and 
wounded,  taking  the  reckoning  from  similar  authorities, 
was  so  small,  as  to  demonstrate  that  under  the  circum- 
stances— with  less  number  of  Union  men  and  disadvan- 
tages of  position,  and  cavalry  deficiency,  and  with  open 
presentation — the  greatest  execution  relatively,  by  far, 
was  done  by  the  "raw,  undisciplined"  Boys  in  Blue, on 


11 

whose  heads  so  much  of  unmerited  obloquy  has  so  long 
been  showered.* 

The  onsets  of  the  69th  New  York — made  so  widely 
familiar  by  accounts  from  both  sides,  that  tally  with  ex- 
actness— and  the  twice  re-formed  in  the  midst  of  fire,  and 
thrice  on-hurled  of  the  79th  New  York,  with  the  daunt- 
less Col.  Cameron — rallying  with  the  cry  of  "Come  on 
Scots" — at  their  head — together  with  the  scenes  of  the 
deaths  of  the  two  commanding  Colonels  on  the  field — 
form  separate  pictures  from  authentic  history  that  live  in 
vivid  colors  in  the  proud  but  sorrowful  memories  of  many 
to-night — one  close  and  interested  spectator,  now  the 
head  of  this  military  department,  being  here  with  us,  to 
recall  at  this  instant  the  battle  and  the  heroism;  pictures 
or  outlines  whose  full  portraiture  and  landscape  shall  be 
faithfully  laid  on  many  a  brilliant  canvas  of  the  future. 

Over  the  graves  of  more  than  500  of  the  killed  and 
wounded  who  fell  at  Stone's  Bridge  and  on  the  edge  of 
Manassas  Plain,  our  comrades  in  the  East,  in  Washing- 
ton, and  elsewhere  on  and  in  the  Virginia  border,' have 
this  day  laid  their  floral  offerings  and  fired  their  honor- 
ing salutes. 

And  there  and  then  rebel  as  well  as  Union  prisoners 
were  taken,  and  rebel  as  well  as  Union  regimental  ban- 
ners, were  seized  and  held.  The  prisoners  were  subse- 
quently exchanged.  The  battle  flags  were  not. 

Another,  one  other  record  of  similar  import, — coming 
from  the  other  and  hither  side  of  the  region  of  regular  hos- 
tilities between  representative  combatants  for  the  Union 
and  for  the  Confederacy, — one  out  of  the  thousand  be- 
sides,— is  at  hand, — for  the  very  briefest  glance,  to-night. 

With  such  discretion  committed  to  him  by  Abraham 
Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  Frank  Blair,  on 

*Gen.  Beauregard,  in  his  official  report,  puts  the  number  of  his  force  on  the 
1 8th  of  July,  at  17,000  effective  men ;  and  on  the  2ist,  27,000,  which  included 
6,200  sent  from  Gen.  Johnston  and  1,700  brought  up  by  Gen.  Holmes  from 
Fredericksburg — Tenney's  History  of  the  Rebellion,  page  79. 

"  We  crossed  Bull  Run  with  about  18,000  men  of  all  arms." — Official  Report 
of  Mayor  Gen.  McDowell. 

"Rash  it  certainly  was  to  attack  Gen.  Beauregard  on  ground  which  he  him- 
self had  selected  and  elaborately  fortified." — New  Orleans  Delta,  July  28,  1861. 


12 

fch€  :;i>,h  of  May.  1861— exactly  27  years  ago  this  night— 
drew  from  liis  pocket  and  properly  presented  an  order, 
which  placed  at  the  head  of  loyal  troops  in  Missouri, 
Nathaniel  Lyon,  a  native  of  Connecticut  and  an  officer 
in  the  regular  army. 

Subsequently  stationed  near  Springfield,  southwest- 
ern Missouri,  on  the  <.»th  of  August,  1861,  Gen.  Lyon 
learned  of  the  junction  of  the  forces  of  Generals  Price  and 
Ben  McCullough — the  last  named  rebel  officer  being  a 
man  of  great  experience  in  military  matters,  and  of  dis- 
tinction as  a  cunning  planner  and  a  plucky  fighter — and 
also  ascertained  that  the  consolidated  troops,  aggregating 
23,000  men.  were  only  ten  or  twelve  miles  distant.  It 
was  notorious  that  this  rebel  host  was  composed  of  "the 
very  best  western  and  southwestern  fighting  material" — 
such  having  been  the  common  newspaper  boast  of  disloyal 
editors  in  Missouri,  before  the  junction; — which  signified, 
of  course,  a  combination  of  most  of  the  elements  that  go 
to  make  up  a  bold  and  determined  foe. 

Coming  to  the  conclusion,  after  as  full  and  careful  a 
review  of  the  situation  as  the  information  he  possessed 
and  the  time  allowed  for  deliberation  would  permit,  that 
it  was  hi>  duty  to  at  least  make  a  "strong  feint"  of  an  at- 
tack upon  this  formidable  enemy,  Gen.  Lyon  did  not  hes- 
itate tu  march  to  the  encounter;  although  his  own  force 
amounted  to  less  than  5,300  men,  all  told;  of  which 
number  Gen.  Sigel — who  did  not  directly  participate  in 
the  main  action  that  followed — had  more  than  1,300. 
The  enemy's  position  was  on  Wilson's  Creek,  along  a  dis- 
tance of  four  or  live  miles,  and  in  the  ravines  and  on  the 
1  its  adjacent.  The  assault  was  made  under  the  ini- 
ate  direction  of  Gen.  Lyon,  and  for  three  hours  was 
continued,  with  varying  fortunes,  but  with  no  movement 
needed  repulse  or  retirement  on  the  part  of  the  entire 
body  of  the  audacious  assailants.  In  the  fourth  hour,  after 
being  thri.-e  wounded  severely — once  having  his  horse 
killed  under  him,  at  the  same  time  that  he  received  a 
.-hot  in  the  right  l«-g — and  while  engaged  in  re-forming 
the  :M  Kan-a-  and  leading  it  to  a  fresh  onset,  fell  Gen. 
Nathaniel  Lyon.  with  a  rebel  bullet  in  his  heart.  Of  him 
Major  S.  1).  Stnriris,  who  succeeded  to  the  command, 


13 

wrote  from  that  evening's  camp:  "Wherever  the  battle 
mos't  furiously  raged,  there  Gen.  Lyon  was  to  be  found." 
And  in  his  formal,  official  report  of  the  battle,  after  nar' 
rating  events  up  to  the  happening  of  this  great  calamity, 
the  same  commanding  officer  proceeds:  "Thus  gloriously 
fell  as  brave  a  soldier  as  ever  drew  a  sword;  a  man  whose 
honesty  of  purpose  was  proverbial;  a  noble  patriot;  and 
one  who  held  his  life  as  nothing  when  his  country  de- 
manded it  of  him."  What  words  could  be  added  to  these, 
to  rouse  to  keenest  pulse  our  reverential  tribute  of 
memory  and  affection  for  the  spirit  of  such  a  man! 

And  of  the  battle  of  Wilson's  Creek  itself,  the  authen- 
tic and  now  undisputed  record  says:  "The  Confederates 
twice  in  its  progress  came  up  to  the  Federal  lines  with  a 
Union  flag  flying;  [the  Union  forces  that  were  thus  ap- 
proached then  momentarily  expecting  the  coming  of  Gen, 
Sigel  and  his  1,300  men,]  and  thus  deceived  the  Federal 
troops,  until  they  could  get  so  close  as  to  pour  a  most  de- 
structive fire  upon  them."  And  yet  even  this  "ruse" — as 
the  rebels  playfully  named  it — on  the  part  of  the  Confed- 
erate commanders,  produced  no  panic  and  little  confusion 
in  the  Union  ranks. 

During  three  more  hours,  after  the  fall  of  Gen.  Lyon, 
the  contest  was  continued,  at  the  close  of  which  time  the 
enemy  was  fairly  forced  from  its  advantageous  positions,, 
back  to  its  camps  ,and  even  still  farther  to  the  rear. 

Major  Sturgis  in  the  concluding  portion  of  his  report 
declares,  that  the  best  eulogium  he  could  pass  upon  the 
3,700  Union  soldiers  engaged  in  this  encounter,  was  by 
narrating  the  facts:  that  after  a  fatiguing  night's  march, 
they  attacked  an  enemy  outnumbering  them  by  over  -six 
to  one — 23,000  to  3,700 — and  after  a  bloody  conflict  of 
six  hours — at  the  expiration  of  which  the  rebel  forces  re- 
tired from  their  original  line,  and  ceased  to  contend — 
withdrew  at  leisure  to  their  base  of  supplies,  near  the 
town  of  Springfield. 

In  endeavoring  to  estimate  and  fairly  consider  the 
debt  due  the  Union  soldiers  of  the  Civil  War,  especially 
to  be  recalled  and  reviewed  this  day,  with  a  foremost 
purpose  of  begetting  or  invoking  a  mood  for  earnest  and 
profound  thankfulness  toward  those  who  fought  and  fell,. 


14 

or  otherwise  suffered  unto  death  in  the  holy  cause, 
what  better,  what  more  suggestive  and  impressive  act  of 
reference  is  possible,  than  that  which  places  before  you 
the  map  of  the  country  that  would  have  been  authori- 
tatively outlined  and  printed,  if  the  Rebellion  had  been 
successful  ?  Think  what  your  children,  coming  home 
from  the  Public  Schools,  would  have  recited  to  you,  this 
week,  from  the  lesson  in  geography  that  is  now  embraced 
in  a  single  national  title  and  subordinate  enumeration  ! 
See  the  dark  red  line,  dotted  with  fortress  hexagons, 
across  our  dear  mother  country's  breast.  Instead  of 
telling  of  the  one  great  Republic  with  the  boundaries 
that  were  and  are,  comprehending  the  Thirty-eight 
Commonwealths,  beginning  with  the  precious  names  that 
cover  the  territory  of  the  glorious  Old  Original  Thirteen, 
your  children  must  have  answered  with  a  description  of 
a  Union  and  a  separate  "  Confederate  States  of  North 
America"; — the  latter  responsively  announced  as  com- 
posed of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Texas, 
Arkansas,  Tennessee,  and  probably  Kentucky,  and  pos- 
sibly Missouri;  with  a  shameful  accornpaning  historical 
record  of  a  bloody  dismemberment  and  divorce.  Con- 
template that  division,  this  night,  with  the  mingled  sen- 
timents of  aversion  and  of  gratitude  that  it  must  evoke; — 
horror  at  the  thought  of  such  a  separation,  and  a  grate- 
ful sense  of  the  measureless  obligation  under  which  we 
rest,  to  those  who  gave  or  periled  their  lives  for  our 
country's  preservation  ! 

Inclusive  of  Kentucky,  the  number  of  square  miles 
in  the  Southern  Confederacy  would  have  been  789,382; 
on  which  territory  there  is  to-day  a  population  of 
14,629,662  persons.  This  area,  embracing  in  great  pro- 
portion some  of  the  fairest  and  most  fruitful  lands  on  the 
face  of  the  globe,  with  a  small  amount  of  non-arable 
acreage,  and  much  of  that  bearing  beds  of  coal  and  iron 
and  even  precious  metals  in  its  breast,  aggregates  a  sur- 
face measurement  equal  to  the  added  areas  of  France, 
Germany,  Austria,  Hungary,  Great  Britian  and  Ireland 
and  Belgium; — which  European  countries  now  contain  a 
population  of  over  161,619,600  inhabitants.  Weigh  for  a 


15 

little  while,  under  such  a  computation  and  attendant 
comparisons,  the  improbabilities  of  re-union,  and  the  al- 
most certain  renewal  of  strife  between  the  people  of  the 
different  governments,  lately  under  one  flag,  and  the 
prospect  of  a  constantly  harrassing  guerilla  warfare! 

Two  propositions  were  distinctly  and  frequently  pro- 
claimed by  those  competent  and  authorized  to  speak  of 
the  object  and  purpose  and  scope  of  the  secession  move- 
ment— two  propositions  announced  as  of  cardinal  char- 
acter:— the  one,  that  the  institution  of  negro  slavery 
must  be  preserved,  and  the  other,  that  the  boundaries  of 
the  Confederacy,  with  slavery  guaranteed  as  a  constitu- 
tional right,  should  be  extended  until  the  continuous  soil 
of  the  new  government  presented  a  long  shore  or  beach 
line  on  the  Pacific  Ocean; — hardly  disguising  or  affect- 
ing to  conceal  a  plan  and  determination  to  absorb  the 
entire  domain  of  Mexico — and,  perhaps,  California;  and 
until  at  least  the  main  isles  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  were 
brought  under  the  governmental  authority  of  the  "stars 
and  bars,"  by  actual  annexation  or  a  practically  equiva- 
lent protectorate.  With  foreign  countenance  and  influ- 
ence and  aid — arising  from  causes  we  have  not  time  to 
specify,  and  exerted  in  ways  adapted  to  every  exigency, 
and  the  most  powerful  abetment — England  with  an  old 
grudge  against  us,  and  an  everliving  monarchical  dis- 
like; with  her  colonial  possessions  of  slender  tenure  on 
our  north,  with  her  hated  rival  France  in  the  halls  of 
Montezuma — with  the  hundred  and  one  patent  reasons 
springing  out  of  such  a  condition  of  things — to  go  no 
farther  nor  elsewhere  for  contributing  causes  and  co-op- 
erations,— does  any  intelligent  observer  or  thinker  doubt 
for  a  moment  that  the  territorial  enlargement  indicated 
was  or  would  have  been  more  than  probable. 
Such  extension  would  have  given  the  Confederacy  nearly 
double  the  land  surface  already  stated,  with  incalculable 
treasure  for  enlightened  Caucasian  development; — mak- 
ing the  square  mile  jurisdiction  over  1,583,000,  with  a 
population  of  over  29,000,000  of  people. 

But  let  the  boundary  lines  and  the  jurisdiction  of 
the-  Confederacy  stand  and  remain  as  they  unquestion- 
ably would  have  been  drawn  at  the  close  of  a  supposed 


16 

termination  of  the  war,  in  1865,  with  the  Union  forces 
defeated, — (if  you  can  bring  yourselves  for  a  moment  to 
tok- rate  such  a  supposition);  and  then  meditate  upon  the 
inevitable  antagonisms  of  interests  and  personal  and 
state  ambitions  that  would  have  abided  and  grown  and 
intensified,  after  the  cessation  of  hostilities,  under  any 
possible  treaty  of  peace  ?  And  out  from  the  gloom  of 
that  contemplation  and  under  the  sunshine  of  our  saved 
and  sanctified  Union  be  thankful  this  day,  and  ever 
more. 

The  war  of  the  Rebellion  was  a  war  for  slavery,  on 
the  part  of  the  insurgents.  The  war  for  the  Union  was  a 
war  for  liberty.  The  former  was  avowed.  The  latter 
was  involved,  and  developed  into  statements  of  particular,, 
aggressive  purpose,  and  actual  achievements  for  freedom, 
of  which  we  never  dreamed  at  the  hour  when  the  tocsin 
was  sounded. 

In  her  proclamation  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Secession  movement — that  which  may,  perhaps  be 
termed  the  first  overt  act  of  official  speech — South  Caro- 
lina declared  by  the  mouth  of  her  Governor: — "  In  the 
Southern  States  there  are  two  entirely  distinct  and  sepa- 
rate races,  and  one  has  been  held  in  subjection  to  the  other 
by  peaceful  inheritance  from  worthy  and  patriotic  ances- 
tors, and  all  who  know  the  races  well  know  that  it  is  the 
only  form  of  government  that  can  preserve  both,  and 
administer  the  blessings  of  civilization  with  order  and  in. 
harmony.  Anything  tending  to  change  and  weaken  the 
government  and  the  subordination  between  the  races, 
not  only  endangers  the  peace,  but  the  very  existence 
of  society  itself."  These  words  of  this  proclamation 
were  never  in  any  manner  or  decree  questioned  or  quali- 
fied by  any  member  of  any  convention  of  any  of  the 
other  seceding  states,  when  they  subsequently  joined  in 
the  unholy  combination  for  the  overthrow  of  the  Union 
and  the  establishment  of  an  independent,  so-called  Con- 
federacy; on  the  contrary,  these  words  were  often  quoted 
or  referred  to,  in  such  conventions,  by  leading  members, 
with  the  highest  emphasis  of  endorsement  and  approba- 
tion. 

Our  Fathers  would  not  so  much  as  permit  the  word 


17 

slave  to  appear  in  the  Constitution  for  the  Union.  But 
with  its  derivatives  we  find  it  no  less  than  seven  times  in 
the  organic  act  of  the  Southern  Confederacy; — and  always 
there  with  protectful  and  propagating  significance;  save 
as  respects  the  importation  of  negroes,  free  or  bound, 
from  "  any  foreign  country," — which  was  forbidden. 

One  of  the  "  new  provisions  "  adopted  by  the  con- 
stitutional convention  which  assembled  and  held  its  ses- 
sions at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  had  this  affirmance  of 
the  "corner  stone  existence"  of  negro  slavery: — "The 
citizens  of  each  state  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges 
of  citizens  in  the  several  states,  and  shall  have  the 
right  of  transit  and  sojourn  in  any  state  in  this  Confeder- 
acy, with  their  slaves  and  other  property;  and  the  right  of 
property  in  said  slaves  shall  not  be  thereby  impaired." 
And  again: — "  No  slave  or  other  person  held  to  service  or 
labor  in  any  state  or  territory  of  the  Confederate  States, 
under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  or  lawfully  carried  into 
another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation 
therein,  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but 
shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such 
slave  belongs,  or  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be 
due." 

And  looking  east  and  west,  (and  mayhap  north  ?) 
this  constitution  went  on  to  declare : — "  The  Confederate 
States  may  acquire  new  territory.  In  all  such  territory 
the  institution  of  negro  slavery,  as  it  now  exists  in  the 
Confederate  States,  shall  be  recognized  and  protected  by 
Congress  and  by  the  territorial  government;  and  the  in- 
habitants of  the  several  Confederate  States  and  Terri- 
tories shall  have  the  right  to  take  to  such  territory  any 
slaves  lawfully  held  by  them  in  any  of  the  states  and  ter- 
ritories of  the  Confederate  States." 

And  in  this  relation,  consider  the  sympathy  and 
opinions  of  a  large  minority  in  the  Northern  States,  as 
indicated  during  the  earlier  months  and  years  of  the 
rebellion — as  well  as  prior  to  that  time — not  only  favor- 
ing aggressively,  and  outside  of  any  alleged  deference  to 
our  constitutional  guarantee,  the  undisturbed  and  un- 
challenged continuance  of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States, 
but  avowedly  anxious  for  the  introduction  of  that  insti- 


is 

tution  into  our  unstained  or  self-cleansed  common- 
wealths. What  would  have  been  (lie  taunts,  and  the 
overt  ell'orts  by  speech — if  never  by  arms — of  citi/ens, 
many  and  able  and  energetic,  in  our  remaining  "Union," 
to  ••  harmoni/e  "  by  the  comity  of  transit  rights  for 
"  slave  property,"  so-called — if  no  more?  What  the  con- 
sequent fretting  and  demoralization — taking  the  least  of 
embitterments  and  assaults  upon  freedom — even  suppos- 
ing that  it  did  not  result  in  a  practical,  partial  establish- 
ment of  slavery  in  the  North — had  not  the  soldiers  and 
sailors  of  the  North  scourged  and  utterly  defeated  the 
armies  of  the  South? 

Our  Fathers  bequeathed  to  us  a  government  hitherto 
unequalled  and  unapproached  in  its  intrinsic  excellence, 
as  a  comprehensively  drawn  circle  of  means  and  methods 
for  ensuring  freedom,  substantial  progress,  and  govern- 
mental perpetuity  So  far  as  forms  are  concerned,  they 
endowed  their  children  with  political  institutions  that 
provide  a  perfect  right  of  legislative  representation;  with 
a  -ystem  of  courts  for  the  trial  and  adjudication  of  all 
questions  of  deference  in  the  legislative  enactments  to  an 
incomparable  constitution,  and  the  determination  of  dis- 
putes between  states  and  individuals,  and  between  one 
citizen  and  another;  and  with  an  adequate,  many-handed 
power  of  lawful  execution.  This  government  of  our 
Fathers  having  stood  the  test  of  more  than  a  century,  is 
no  longer  an  experiment.  Any  one  in  our  midst  may 
yet — as  many  have  done  in  the  past — argumentatively 
nt  and  insist  upon  the  alleged  beauties  and  compar- 
ative advantages  of  another  and  different  system  of  rule; 
— and,  indeed,  in  this,  and  one  other  license  to  which  I 
shall  allude,  the  very  largeness  of  our  liberty  may  be 
healthfully  exemplified; — but  the  audiences  for  such 
advocacies  have  grown  less  and  less,  with  regular  decline, 
after  the  first  novelty-hearing  of  voice  and  text;  and  from 
the  following  of  fanatics  and  fools,  promise  to  dwindle  to 
the  inarticulate  echo  of  the  silly  speaker's  words.  With 
a  remedy  for  every  wrong  appointed  for  our  assertion, 
and  with  never  any  cause  for  complaint  in  that  respect — 
the  administration  of  the  laws,  at  times,  being  alone  at 
fault — there  is  absolutely  no  excuse  for  revolution  or 


19 

rebellion;  and  treason  is  the  baldest  of  treachery,  and 
disloyalty  dishonor.  All  serious  expressions  of  favor  for 
the  latter  should  be  promptly  confronted  by  the  neigh- 
borly patriot  with  appropriate  deprecating  and  admoni- 
tion; and  the  known,  well  understood,  invariably  inflicted 
penalty  for  the  former  should  be  death. 

By  their  service  in  the  Union  Army  or  Navy  during 
the  Civil  War,  our  comrades  were  the  true  defenders  of 
the  homes  and  firesides  of  their  foes.  The  battles  won 
under  our  flag  were  never  sectional  or  personal  victories; 
triumphs  which  in  exquisite  illustration  of  the  proverbs 
of  heaping  coals  of  fire  on  an' enemy's  head,  were  thrice 
blessed  for  and  unto  those  who  in  ignorance  or  malignant 
passion — stoutly,  indeed,  and  with  splendid  courage — 
maintained  for  so  long  a  time  the  wicked  cause  of  the  so- 
called  Confederate  States  of  North  America. 

Now,  whatever  may  be  said  or  written,  in  and  of  the 
truth,  or  in  an  indulgent  and  partial  temper  of  affection, 
for  the  leading  captains  or  councillors  of  the  rebellion 
who  have  deceased — in  behalf  of  the  memory  of  superior 
types  of  men,  pure  in  their  private  life,  intelligent  and 
gallant  as  officers,  and  the  like — let  it  be  carved  on  mon- 
uments, or  beneath  statues,  or  within  the  mouldings  of 
portrait  frames  that  are  to  hang  in  public  halls,  or  let 
such  loving  testimony  be  printed  in  memorial  volumes 
for  general  circulation;  but  whosoever  shall  seek  by  such 
record,  or  its  extension,  or  by  ceremonies  of  dedication 
or  unveiling  of  shaft  or  figure  or  painting,  to  uphold  or 
defend  the  cause  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  or  the  offi- 
cial conduct  of  its  founders  and  managers,"  as  such,  com- 
mits a  gross  offence  against  the  Republic,  and  is  morally 
guilty  of  a  fresh  crime  of  disloyalty  and  treason  against 
the  government — under  whose  blessed  shadow  he  thus 
shows  himself  to  be  utterly  unworthy  to  longer  remain. 
Again  I  say,  the  largest  liberty  should  be  and  has  been 
illustrated  in  the  freedom  of  speech  extended  to  and  pre- 
served for  disputants  in  behalf  of  other  forms  and  insti- 
tutions of  government,  for  which  greater  happiness  and 
prosperity  may  be  claimed  in  behalf  of  citizens  or  sub- 
jects. And  that  freedom  of  utterance  should  be  suppor- 
ted thoroughly,  to  outermost  lines  already  indicated — 


20 

even  and  ever  permitting  the  surviving  soldiers  and 
statesmen  of  the  Confederacy  to  orally  confess  and  parade 
their  unchanged  opinions,  for  the  maintenance  of  which 
they  manfully  strove;  provided  they  invariably  join  an 
acknowledgment  of  complete  and  irreversible  defeat. 
Such  has  been  and  is  the  prevailing  charitable  disposi- 
tion of  the  Union  soldiers  and  sailors  who  participated 
in  putting  down  the  Kebellion.  The  authors  and  sup- 
porters of  the  late  insurrection  against  our  Republic, 
have  not  and  and  never  have  had  any  shadow  of  reason 
to  complain  of  lack  of»genefous  and  liberal  consideration 
on  the  part  of  their  triumphant  foes.  For  every  man 
who  was  an  officer  in  the  Confederate  service,  military, 
naval  or  civil,  and  who  now  holds  a  commission  from 
the  general  Government  at  Washington — as,  for  one,  I 
rejoice  to  know  that  thousands  of  them  do — is  a  living 
monument  of  the  unsurpassed  if  not  unparalleled  mag- 
nanimity of  the  Union  victors. 

Lord  John  Russell,  in  his  history  of  the  English  Gov- 
ernment and  constitution,  curtly  and  with  wise  and  sum- 
mary precision  and  dismissal,  said:  "Many  definitions 
have  been  given  of  liberty.  Most  of  them  deserve  no  no- 
tice." In  such,  almost  contemptuous,  manner  did  he 
dismiss  a  vast  volume  of  synonyms  and  comparisons  and 
contrasts.  Neither  our  few  remaining  moments  of  in- 
dulgent time  nor  any  expediency  for  instruction  or  sug- 
gestion, admits  of  our  dealing  with  the  attempts  to  com- 
prehensively explain,  in  brief  and  satisfactory  phrase, 
the  meaning  of  the  precious  letters  as  they  spell  that 
word — as  we  in  our  hearts  understand  it,  when  said  or 
sounded  in  prose  or  song.  But  as  to  something  of  the 
practical  definitions,  written  in  the  blood  of  our  heroes 
during  the  civil  war,  it  is  our  final  privilege  to  speak 
this  night. 

Our  children  are  to  be  calledmpon  to  remember  at  this 
time,  that  before  the  Civil  war  the  grossest  form  of  slav- 
ery existed  in  the  so-called  Confederate  States;  and  that 
its  malign  influence  demoralized  and  debauched  com- 
munities and  eiti/enship,  in  the  Northern  as  well  as  the 
Southern  commonwealths,  to  that  degree  that  it  had  be- 
come a  doubtful  question  to  all  thoughtful  observers, 


21 

whether  its  baneful  effects  upon  the  individual  master  or 
slave  was  to  be  equally  deplored  with  its  emasculating 
influence  upon  national  politics.  To  us  contemporaries, 
all  this  is  sadly,  wearisomely  familiar.  But  we  should 
testify  respecting  it,  when  it  is  being  sought  to  contra- 
dict or  wholly  cover  it  from  a  righteous  recollection. 

We  know  what  the  war  for  the  Union  did  by  way  of 
literally  extirpating  the  curse  of  human  bondage;  and 
this  is  one  of  the  days  in  the  year  when  no  one  should 
feel  restricted  to  nodding  or  whispering  about  the  terri- 
ble evil,  and  all  its  clusters  of  inseparable,  malarious  con- 
comitants and  consequences.  Well  said  the  famous 
Irish  orator  and  emancipator,  O'Connell:  "Slavery  is 
the  sum  of  all  villanies." 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  with  respect  to  the  actual  re- 
lation and  rule  of  serfdom,  the  war  for  the  Union  de- 
creed Liberty. 

Liberty  to  labor.  It  cut  the  iron  shackles  of  the  ne- 
gro slave,  and  for  him,  and  for  the  use  of  his  emanci- 
pated hand,  it  caused  the  severed  links  to  be  melted  and 
moulded  into  implements  of  husbandry  and  the  tools  of 
free,  wage-returning  toil. 

Liberty  to  learn.  The  lines  of  the  primer  at  which 
comparatively  few  of  the  race  enthralled  had  even  dared 
to  take  a  stealthy  glance,  or  over  whose  pages  in  hidden 
solitude  the  curious  and  ambitious  slaves  had  only  been 
able  to  see  a  blurred  surface  of  indecipherable  signs,  was 
opened  and  outspread  upon  the  lap  of  the  Yankee  school- 
marm,  now  duly  installed  in  their  midst.  And  around  her 
knees  gathered  a  motley  group  of  black,  curly-pated 
youngsters  and  straight-but  unkempt  haired  juvenile 
representatives  of  the  "poor  white  trash"  of  the  district; 
while  over  her  shoulders  peered  the  Sambos  and  Dinahs 
of  the  neighboring  plantations,  young  and  old — all  alike 
anxious  to  be  taught  in  the  mysteries  of  the  alphabet 
and  the  art  of  orthography.  And  soon,  to  these  almost 
equally  benighted  pupils,  the  leaves  of  the  little  book  or 
chart  of  instruction  became  luminous  with  the  light  of 
intelligence.  And  the  eyes  of  the  African,  once  endowed 
with  the  power  of  reading-discernment,  were  quickly 
transferred  by  him  to  the  pages  of  the  long  coveted  vol- 


22 

nines,  wherein  they  could  see  for  themselves  the  printed 
song  <>i'  Mo-es,  and  the  apocalyptic  description  of  the 
beautiful  City  of  God. 

And  with  respect  to  both  master  and  man,  in  material 
atl'airs,  there  came  with  the  success  of  the  Union  arms, 
Liberty  of  enterprise.  Hitherto  there  had  been  in  the 
Southern  States  an  almost  entire  and  exclusive  devotion 
and  dedication  of  large  labor  interests  in  the  department 
i)j'  agriculture,  and  its  first,  raw  market  preparations; 
and  these  confined  principally  to  two  great  staples;  with 
a  neglect  and  apparent  dislike  towards  the  perfecting  arts 
of  manufacturing  skill,  which  to  most  observers  was  very 
singular  and  surprising — as  indeed  it  was  inexplicable 
except  on  grounds  that  took  in  a  sense  of  ease  and  suffi- 
cient opulence,  and  a  secret  fear  of  an  infection  of  dan- 
gerous enlightenment  by  the  training  of  the  serf  in  the 
craft  of  the  skilled  arti/an  and  the  chemist.  The  day  of 
emancipation  and  national  victory,  fully  ushered  in,  saw 
tin-  beginning,  small  indeed  at  first,  but  definite  and  res- 
olnte,  of  the  opening  and  extension  and  diversification 
of  domes!  ie  and  community  mechanical  industries; — the 
laying  of  foundations  of  pioneer  houses  for  the  refiner 
and  the  loom — which  have  since  been  multiplied  at  such 
ratio  as  to  promise  a  day  close  at  hand,  or  not  very  far 
distant,  when  the  factory  upon  or  adjacent  to  the  won- 
derfully productive  fields  of  the  South  shall  be  adequate, 
with  vat  and  jenny,  for  their  every  cane  of  sugar  and  the 
fibrous  blossom  of  their  every  cotton  plant. 

And  alfecting  (lie  people  both  North  and  South — es- 
pecially, of  course,  the  latter — far  beyond  anything 
which  it  has  been  customary  to  concede,  there  came  to 
this  country,  with  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Rebellion, 

Liberty  of  thought.  With  respect  to  which  maybe 
instructively  considered  not  only  or  merely  that  which 
wa>  audacious  and  boldly  defiant  among  men  in  the 
States  that  sought  to  secede — which  was  matter  of  sur- 
face and  commonplace  observation;  but  that  liberty  of 
contemplation  winch  was  not  permitted,  which  was  kept 
from  or  stamped  out  of  mind,  so  to  speak,  by  the  thor- 
oughly informed  and  acute  leaders  and  controllers  of 
society,  who  saw  or  understood  what  ought  not  to  be 


23 

even  mentally  challenged  or  doubted,  if  a  perfectly  safe 
uniformity  of  belief  and  conversation  and  action  was  to 
be  obtained  or  preserved.  And  here  it  was,  that  thou- 
sands  of  honest  minds  and  hearts  among  the  middle 
classes  and  in  every  division  of  the-white  population  of 
the  Southern  States,  were  fully  possessed  by  a  prejudice, 
carefully  cultivated  and  guarded  in  them,  to  that  inten- 
sity that  made  them  fiercely  intolerant  of  the  slightest 
hint  or  manifestation  of  a  dislike  towards  the  institution 
of  slavery;  to  say  nothing  of  a  cultivated  readiness  to  do 
battle  on  such  a  basis,  and  a  justifying  conviction  in 
favor  of  the  quickest  and  most  cruel  methods  of  suppres- 
sion and  exiling  against  any  who  would  presume  to 
speak  distinctly  and  fully  in  behalf  of  the  freedom  of  all 
men  and  the  enslavement  of  none.  And  in  the  North, 
not  a  few  were  saturated  with  the  same  satanic  feeling 
and  impulse;  sincere  and  conscientious  supporters  of 
their  political  or  ecclesiastical  colleagues  of  the  Confed- 
erate South.  The  Avar  and  the  winning  changed  all  this. 
Liberty  of  speech.  How  could  there  be  any  in  the 
South?  How  much  must  it  have  been  hampered  and 
impaired  in  the  North,  under  the  conditions  already  out- 
lined? Liberty  of  speech,  of  course,  of  course,  there  was 
not,  nor  anything  approaching  it,  in  the  States  that  at- 
tempted to  secede,  and  in  portions  of  the  bordering 
States,  when  the  war  for  the  Union  began.  Liberty, 
privilege  there  was  not  there  to  even  speak  her  name,  or 
invoke  her  presence  or  slightest  blessing,  in  audible 
voice.  The  very  license  of  the  orator  on  the  national 
anniversary  platform  in  the  South,  was  something  of 
studied  and  extremely  sensitive  solitude;  a  caution  and 
carefulness  unwritten,  indeed,  but  none  the  less  well  un- 
derstood among  those  who  might  and  did  with  promi- 
nence and  general  approbation  occupy  that  position  in 
that  portion  of  our  country  on  that  natal  day.  And  as 
for  the  common  communications  of  the  masses  of  the 
people,  the  mere  pronouncing  of  the  word  or  one  of  its 
unmistakable  synonyms,  in  many  Southern  localities, 
was  certain  to  rouse  hateful  suspicion  against  the 
speaker,  or  was  a  sufficient  signal  of  itself  for  overt  and 
summary  acts  of  indignity  or  castigation  or  banishment. 

371)577 


24 

Liberty:  it  was  nut  .-<>  much  as  to  be  named  amongst 
them! 

Nor  time,  nor  ixeed  to  choose  from  the  chapters  of 
outrages  in  the  North,  punishing  and  forbidding  free 
speech  for  freedom:  often  i-nlminating  in  the  destruction 
of  the  press,  the  dwelling,  perhaps  the  life  of  the  valiant 
champion.  The  war  for  the  Union  embraced  the  cause 
of  free  speech,  North  and  South.  Let  us  proclaim  its 
victories,  and  preserve  them. 

0,  sweet  ^pirit  of  Liberty!  We  would  not  pause  to  specu- 
late with  the  philosophers  and  the  schoolmen,  in  efforts 
to  distinguish  with  verbal  precision  the  breadth  of  the 
lines  or  the  exact  depths  of  the  gulf  that  separates  thy 
dominions  from  those  presided  over  by  the  evil  genii  of 
lieentiousnes.-  and  anarchy.  We  may  not  ascend  and 
dwell  upon  the  mountain  tops  with  the  poets,  who  seek 
with  fartherest  vision  to  scan  and  to  picture.  Of  the 
might v  landscapes  over  which  thy  beneficence  broods, 
and  whereon  it  should  always  descend  and  forever  rest, — 
fanned  by  the  soft  zephyrs  of  thy  love  and  lighted  by  the 
benignant  glow  of  thy  celestial  fires.  Poor,  weak  earthy 
creatures,  that  we  are;  incapable  of  more  than  a  momen- 
tary appreciative  glimpse  at  the  perfect  realm  of  freedom. 

But  one  thing  WQ  do  devoutly  hope.  One  thing  we  do 
religiously  believe.  One  thing  under  thy  Heavenly  in- 
vocation we  even  dare  to  proclaim.  Within  the  unbroken, 
uncontracied  boundaries  of  this  great  American  com- 
monwealth, for  all  time  to  come,  with  amplest  room  for 
every  enlightened  and  enlightening  thought,  with  invi- 
tation for  freest  utterance  by  every  conscientious  mind, 
and  despite — expecting — desiring — the  temporary,  per- 
sonal, partisan  alienations  of  the  hour,  all  rational  plans 
and  problems,  claimed  to  be  promotive  of  self-govern- 
ment, may  be  heard  and  tested — if  at  all,  with  us — with 
peaceful  practices  and  loyal  hearts. 

Beyond  the  geographical  confines  of  this  republic, 
which  must  never  be  diminished,  our  political  sympa- 
thies shall  outflow,  as  the  example  of  our  administra- 
tions, in  proportion  to  their  fidelity  to  our  governmental 
principles,  must  edify  and  inspire;  but  as  we  have  no 
authority  beyond,  we  can  assume  no  responsibility,  and 


25 

entertain  no  absolute  faith .  Within,  within  our  coun- 
try's boundaries,  we  are  resolved,  0  gracious  Spirit,  that 
Liberty  and  Union  shall  abide:  the  written  constitution 
of  our  fathers,  with  all  its  powers  and  limitations,  and 
the  amendments  thereunto,  being  inviolably  maintained. 
And  with  this  trust  and  vow,  who  shall  most,  who  best 
shall  labor  and  fulfil  ?  Who  watch  with  keenest  sight 
and  steadiest  vigil?  Who  shall  be  .wisest  to  guard?  Most 
willing  to  sacrifice,  in  order  to  enhance  the  glory  of  the 
Nation  and  the  happiness  of  all  the  people?  Who  else 
— equal  to,  if  not  before  all  others,  during  the  few  re- 
maining, swift-fleeting  years  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
— who  else,  if  not  the  comrades  of  the  Grand  Arrny  of 
the  Republic  ? 


\ 


MEMORIAL    DAY  COMMITTEE, 

SAX   FRANCISCO,  CALIFORNIA, 
FOR    1888, 


Ki>\\.   S.   SALOMON,  Chairman.  PHIL  M.   BELTON,    Secretary. 

II.  T.   HOBBERT,  Treasurer. 


Lincoln  Post,  No,  1. 

II.  J.Brady,  II.  F.  Randall,  T.  C.  Masteller, 

M.  Murphy,  E.  B.  Harris, 

II.  T.  Hobbert,  F.    derrick,  II.  C.  Dibble. 


Oeo.  H.  Tlnniiri*  Host,  No.  '!. 

F.  F.  Chever,  I'.  I..  Turpin,  Wm.  Healey,  M.  L.  Culver, 

Joseph  Simonson,  T.  J.  Scoville,  W.  W.  Magary. 


.las.  A.  Oarfleld  Post,  No,  84. 

Kihvard  S.  Salomon,  John  Clynes, 

|.   II.  Eustice,  Albert  Brown, 

J.  H.  Babbitt. 


.!•   H.   Riley, 


Col.  Cass  Post,  No.  46. 
R.   E.   Dowdall. 


B.  Kenney, 


<;.   «.    Weade    Post,  No.  48. 
Robert  Graham,  {»>»  f.  J.  Cahill, 

P.   M.  Belton, 


F.    B.   Griffiths, 


Liberty     Post,    No.    1»«. 


M.   Lane. 


G.  \V.   Irelan. 


l   •  ^^«^i4 

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PAT  JAN.  21,  1908 


